Patidar leader Hardik Patel was slapped by an unidentified man during the Jan Akrosh Rally in Gujarat.

Patidar leader from Gujarat, Hardik Patel, who recently joined the Congress, was slapped by an unidentified man during the Jan Akrosh Rally in Gujarat on Friday.

The incident took place when a man, from the crowd, came up to the stage and slapped the Congress leader while he was addressing a rally in Gujarat’s Surendra Nagar.

On Thursday, Patel’s helicopter was denied permission by a farmer in Gujarat to land on his farm. In what is believed to be an embarrassment for Patel, a farmer who had earlier agreed to allow his farmland to be used as landing spot for his chopper, revoked the permission. Due to this, Patel had to extend his travel by about 2 hours, as he was forced to commute 100 km by road to reach the rally venue.

Earlier this month on April 17, the Patidar leader who led the Patidar agitation in 2015 claimed that his community is happy with his decision of joining the Congress party. “There are a huge number of Patidars who like me and my leadership. Patidar community is happy with my decision of joining the Congress. I believe they will support me and will help in fighting this battle”, he said

Earlier this month, Patel took a jibe at the BJP’s ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ campaign and said that the party was raising the issues of Kashmir and Pakistan as it had nothing to speak about its performance. He said the country’s youth was angry with the BJP and it was time to send Prime Minister Narendra Modi back to Gujarat.

Hardik officially joined Congress on March 12 at a party rally in Ahmedabad, which was organised after the Congress Working Committee meeting. The 25-year-old leader was inducted into the party in the presence of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and other leaders.

As we all know In a major setback to Congress leader Hardik Patel, the Supreme Court on Tuesday refused urgent hearing on his conviction and sentence in a 2015 rioting case by a district court. So long as he remains convicted, Hardik Patel cannot contest elections. Patel on Monday moved the apex court seeking the stay of his conviction and sentence to enable him to contest the Lok Sabha polls.

The Patidar leader, who joined the Congress on March 12, has begun preparation to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha poll from Jamnagar constituency. However, his campaign hit a legal roadblock after the Gujarat High Court on March 29 refused to stay his conviction. The High Court had declined the contention of Patel’s lawyers that if the conviction was not stayed, it will cause ‘irreparable damage’ as he intended to contest the Lok Sabha election.

In its March 29 order, the High Court observed that a conviction can be stayed only in rare and exceptional cases, and Patel’s case did not fall into that category. The Sessions Court at Visnagar in Mehsana district had sentenced Patel to two years imprisonment last July for rioting and arson in Visnagar town in 2015 during the Patidar quota stir which he led. The High Court in August 2018 suspended the sentence but not the conviction.